Gods' Enigma
by Eternal Nightshade
Summary: Atemu x Yuugi. The puzzle was 'stolen' in the dead of night. The pharaoh naturally assumes its the work of his arch-foe, the King of Thieves, but when his soldiers find it cradled in the arms of a boy, the pharaoh finds more questions than answers.
1. Prologue:  Wanderer

**Gods' Enigma **(Aka "Puzzling Questions")

**Rating: **K+, but if this story actually goes anywhere, who knows? PG-13 is a possibility. So's M.

**A/N**: You know...If I tried to explain what's been going on with me for the past years, I'm not sure you'd believe it. The divorce and the jobs, the computer deaths, the occasional lack of Internet, the identity crises, complete loss of sanity. (Not me, my dad, just nearly me.) Oh, yes, what a wondrous joy my life can be! Hark, is that sarcasm I hear?

Never mind. FIRST, **I want to give you all a fair warning.** I'm posting this because I want to see if, by some chance, doing so will cause me to want to continue it. I don't know. I was awfully fond of it for a while, but...I just...don't really know. This particular muse is dedicated to and was originally invented by Inami (the artist, who drew the inspirational fan art) and vampslyr (the one who outlined the general plot) of the Deviant-art community.

I ask that all readers visit my profile for a link to the lovely fan-art that inspired this. Which...I'll put up there soon.

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"How much further?" His formerly soft and pleasant voice had grown weak and raspy, it seemed, but that didn't really surprise him at all.

After all, every muscle and bone in his body was now thoroughly worn and tired. His lips felt dry, his throat felt dry, and the shimmering sand was still dry and impressively warm from the scalding desert sun. The golden eye of the heavens had done its job excessively well, it seemed.

It was an extreme, yet welcome contrast to the bitter cold of the night air. Howling winds, that had only murmured and whispered in his ears about an hour ago, had grown stronger and louder as they pushed him forward and bit into his tender skin down to his aching, freezing bones.

More than he had ever wanted to do anything before in his whole young life, he wanted to simply curl up and fall asleep against the warm, shifting surface beneath his feet. He almost felt as if he had never walked before now, much less this far. It was as if he had been walking forever, or at least as long as he had been alive.

He longed for shelter, for a soft bed and a thick, velvety blanket…perhaps the pleasant company of a warm body near by—a loved one to share the sacred peace of this deep, dark, starless night.

But his treasure prodded and beckoned, urging him not to stop here. It was not time yet. The stoic eye of the gold pyramid almost seemed to gaze on him with pity, but it pushed him onward. "_Soon._" It promised temptingly. "_Very soon, you will find what you seek_."

The young man sighed to himself wearily and continued to carry his little treasure with him as he trekked on. He didn't know why he was out in the desert. He wasn't entirely sure how he got here or exactly where he was going. And he really didn't know why a golden necklace, of all things, was speaking to him.

But somehow, he didn't find it all that strange. He only knew it was his task to fulfill. It was his mission to follow this item's directions and find…whatever it was he sought. He really didn't know, but it seemed to, anyway, and that was enough.

He was just so **_tired_**. "I don't know how much further I can go, my friend." He sighed to it, clutching the priceless object in his small hand. "Couldn't you have taken me closer to it when you asked me to come here?"

While he couldn't remember coming out here very well, he just knew he hadn't been tired when the gold amulet—it called itself the "shennen puzzle"—had summoned him here. He had not been tired at all when he answered its call to him. He had felt so happy and willing and light-hearted. Now all he felt was heavy-headed and lead-footed.

"_Have patience, you will be home soon_."

"Home?" He asked the enigmatic jewelry, astonished. This was the very first time it had mentioned their destination, he thought, and now that he actually knew, it made for more questions than answers. Hadn't it just taken him from his own home? Or…was that where he had been? He couldn't remember just now. In fact, it didn't really matter just now. He could remember later. Gods above, was he tired. "A new home?"

"_…Old and new. Nothing has changed, but nothing will be the same_."

"Oh." That didn't make any sense at all, but then again, that wasn't any less sense than he had chosen to rely on all night. Just as long as wherever the golden puzzle was taking him to was close by. Exhaustion weighed heavily on his eyelids and they had already begun to droop, slowly, shielding him from the sands swirling around him in an intricate dance.

"_Here. Rest now_."

"Here?" His eyelids opened, though he didn't necessarily remember closing them, but he knew they must have revealed his complete and total disappointment. No shelter, no bed, no blanket, no familiar faces to greet him, no one and nothing as far as his eyes could see. There had to be some mistake. "You said you'd take me home."

The puzzle glittered agreeably to sooth his worries. "_And we shall go home. Soon. Lie down, rest, and find peace. Tomorrow, when you wake, we shall be home again_."

He was far too tired to argue. If he tried, he sensed that the puzzle wasn't going to answer him anyway, as it had said all it really wanted to say tonight. It was tired, too, he thought absently. It didn't come to him to wonder how an inanimate object got tired, or why this particular one was. Not many thoughts would've seemed worth the effort now.

Right now, all he could think about was sleep. He curled up next to a large, warm pile of sand and tried to conserve as much body heat as possible. When he shivered violently in spite of his efforts, the puzzle glowed a soft butter-gold and he felt its warmth envelope his body.

"Thank you." He yawned, smiling. "Good night."

There was a long moment of silence, where the boy almost completely drifted off into darkness, before the puzzle glittered at him one last time.

"_Good night…Yugi_."

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...Okay, so, that's the prologue.

Thoroughly confused? I really hope so. I tried. Not terribly hard, but I tried.

The next part is unfinished, though it clears up some of what's going on and is mainly from Atemu's perspective.

I'll try to finish it.

In the meantime, please review.


	2. Of King and Country

Hello again. I was a bit startled about how quickly this story received a response. I forget sometimes, the things I write -do- generate interest. The decision among the readers thus far seems pretty unanimous. You seem to think this is an interesting idea, (and it was as confusing as I hoped,) and that it seems worth pursuing.

(And to answer your question, sweetyjg, the main priests of Yuugiou will…most likely make a cameo here and there. I mean, I'm not promising major roles or anything just yet as far as plot-development goes, but Mahaad and Seth are fun to have around. Mana and Ishizu, too. Which, since we're on the subject: **I wouldn't mind reviewers throwing around pairings for the minor characters that you would like to see. **Again, no promises, but we'll see.)

Oh. And, as a pleasant surprise in my reviews, I even got the approval of a few writers I admire. I wonder if I can live up to that expectation. Hmm. Nevertheless, thank you all.

…This story isn't alone, I confess. I've had many plot bunnies gnawing on me, including another AU AE (cruel pharaoh Atemu, captured Yuugi, if it too sounds familiar for a plot line, no need to fear, it's weird enough to be unique) another one where they're business rivals, (the banter has just been too much fun, but I know -nothing- about the world of business) and also one inspired by, quirky as this sounds, the old Jack Frost movie.

Not the living snow man or the serial killer, I mean the one with the snow-flake cutting elves and the whole "mischievous, nose-nipping prince of winter" shtick. Yeah. xD … Don't ask why. My other personalities and I have absolutely no idea.

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As Ra began his steady, age-old ascent over the pyramids the next morning...all hell broke loose.

While all the insignificantly average citizens of Egypt were blissfully unaware that there was anything out of place today, the royal house was in an uproar. The pharaoh of Egypt was furious and every servant, priest, advisor, and otherwise living soul residing in his palace were searching frantically for his most treasured possession: A gold, pyramid-shaped puzzle.

While to the untrained eye, it looked like an absurdly gaudy piece of jewelry, every man, woman, and child in the palace knew that not only was it of great sentimental value to the pharaoh, but it had been carefully crafted by powerful magicians and priests, perhaps in part by the gods themselves, so it possessed an unfathomable amount of magic.

In the wrong hands, its powers could've caused unthinkable disaster.

Not only could someone use it to destroy all of Egypt—the main reason that most of his advisers and priests were reduced to shrieking, panicking, whiny children—but it was _**his**_ puzzle that could be used to destroy all of Egypt, and someone actually had the nerve to **steal** it from him.

His eyes narrowed to slits of smoldering embers as he glared out from his balcony. For hours his servants had overturned everything in his palace and there was no sign of his beloved amulet. Not that he had expected anything less. He never misplaced it.

No, if he was not wearing it around his neck by its leather cord, he either had it in his hands, or in a magically reinforced strong box, that had been given to him just after he assembled the puzzle. And that box was always in his room, on the table beside his bed, making him absolutely certain that they were never far apart.

He had not worn the puzzle when he slept last night, so he had to have put it away. And only he should've been able to open that magic box. It was made to open only for him.

But when he awoke and went to put it on, the puzzle was gone. Just completely gone. He could not even sense its presence, which had been a constant comfort to him ever since the day he put it together.

That meant that the thief had to be out there, somewhere, and neither he nor anyone else in the entire palace would rest until his guards had located them and dragged them back into his throne room. "Why didn't it try to warn me…?" He wondered aloud, scowling.

The puzzle was capable of doing many things on its own, such as warning its owner about being stolen. But he had slept soundly last night. It was not until today that he realized it had been spirited away. The puzzle didn't like being away from its owner anymore than its owner enjoyed its absence, so it surely would've done something to prevent the theft.

Yet, his room was perfectly intact. No sign of magic, intruders, or anything unusual at all. The box itself had still been locked, sitting quite innocently in the exact same spot where it always was, every single day. He grew more frustrated and confused with each passing second. 'Even a master thief wouldn't be able to pull this off.' He thought irritably.

Though, indeed, one came to mind.

If it really was _**that**_ wretched white-haired, pale-faced demon again, then by Ra, there would be hell to pay. Atemu had already been planning new and unusual methods of torture, followed by trying to conjure up some unholy way to send him into Amenta (1), and then after all that came the appeasing image of Ammut, the great eater herself, devouring his tainted soul with her massive crocodilian maw…

…This thought _slightly_ improved Atemu's mood. Slightly.

But he still wanted his puzzle back, and he wanted it _NOW._

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Apparently the gods were in good spirits today-or, quite possibly, they were all deathly tired of listening to the priests in Egypt fretting and whining. And, of course, there was the pharaoh's own tirade. Whatever had prompted them to a swift act of kindness, the puzzle was astoundingly recovered that same day.

Atemu was pleasantly surprised his soldiers had found it so quickly and immediately revised his opinion of them being utterly and completely incompetent. When they told him they were bringing back, _**alive**_, the thief that had been found with it, Atemu irritably re-revised his opinion.

When the messenger added that the puzzle had not yet even been taken back _from _said thief, Atemu down-graded his opinion for them to the same grand regard he held for the contents on the floor of his royal stables. He stormed out to meet his men when they returned, furious.

He was stunned when they met him with an unconscious man…no, truthfully, he looked too young to be called a man. His rounded and-shockingly, surely deceptively-innocent looking face made it impossible to call him more than a youth. In fact, Atemu was not completely convinced at first glance that it wasn't a child his soldiers had hauled in.

He was a foreigner though, that was certain, by the paler skin. And perhaps more startling than either his likely age or skin color was the color and style of his hair. It naturally did not look its best, as the youth had been found out in the desert, sleeping in the sand and dirt of Egypt, but it was still eerily familiar. The only other place the pharaoh had seen hair like that recently was in a mirror.

Foreign, younger, smaller, and thinner, but still, there was a resemblance which was well suited to making this entire mess less logical than it had been before and it wasn't logical at all to begin with, because he still couldn't figure out _how _his puzzle had been stolen.

And of course, there was the wayward trinket itself, cradled in the hand of the pale boy.

Atemu would have demanded to know why his soldiers had not simply taken the puzzle from the boy, but they hastened to explain it themselves, lest they face his wrath. And the answer was even more disconcerting than boy's appearance or the theft itself.

Whenever one of the soldiers attempted to take the shennen puzzle from the boy, the necklace would seem to grow unbearably heavy. Not even the strongest of his men could lift it from the small, pale hand of the youth. When they continued, it felt unbearably hot to the touch, and one of the soldiers revealed a burned hand with the explanation.

Pharaoh Atemu, as its keeper for so many years, was aware that his puzzle had a mind of its own, but why on earth did it refuse to be removed from its thief? It usually desired to be close to him, but was it trying to stay away now?

Did it actually _want_ to be in the boy's possession? Did it want to be taken away? Was that why the youth was inexplicably capable of stealing it out from under the nose of every watchful eye in the palace, his own included? It was absolutely maddening.

Surely it couldn't be true, that the puzzle wanted this? That it had really allowed the theft to occur? But if not, then there was no explanation. How on earth had he done it? A boy, barely more than a child, making off with the pharaoh's greatest treasure? The most important magical artifact in all Egypt?

It was absurd. Impossible. It would've taken the skills of both a master thief and truly great magician to pull it off, at the very least.

A pharaoh surely made many enemies merely by ascending the throne, but only one of them could have even come close to pulling this off, and it clearly wasn't him. The self-appointed king of thieves was many things, but hopelessly stupid was **not** one of them.

He would never trust his greatest enemy's most prized possession to a defenseless boy.

There were no accomplices to be seen and the boy had been found totally out in the open, outside the city, and otherwise in the middle of nowhere. It was brilliant thievery, surely,

but the end result made no sense. If anyone had the ability to pull off such a thing, why didn't they have the ability to carry it out to its fullest extent? It was utter nonsense.

And it definitely wasn't just the "who" or the "how" that bothered the perturbed Pharaoh.

"Why" was also close to driving him past the brink of insanity amongst the plethora of questions. Yes, it did have monetary value and would appeal to many men. Truly, the puzzle was incredibly valuable, but why would _this _youth steal it?

Surely a smart thief seeking valuables would not have chosen the shennen puzzle as his target. It was too easily missed, too heavily guarded, too troublesome, and it belonged solely to someone who could've taken the thief's head off at a moment's notice.

That aside, it was made of gold and all, and its size made that impressive, but it was not nearly as intriguing as the _**thousands **_of other excessively valuable items in the palace.

The jewel-encrusted ornaments Atemu was required to wear every single day would've fetched a more attractive price from the average, ignorant merchant, but they had been left untouched. In fact, nothing else in his whole room was even remotely out of place. Not a single gem was missed.

No thief went after such an item—so big, bulky, and noticeable, without even _touching_ anything else in the entire palace. It made no sense. So that had to mean that this was more than petty, monetary theft. But why?

The puzzle's true worth lay in its magical abilities, and that was obviously a reason to take it, but it was useless to someone who didn't know how to wield it. Out of everyone in the world, this foreign child seemed one of the _least_ likely to know anything about its dark powers.

True, he was a little unusual, but the Pharaoh couldn't sense any magical prowess in him. Unless he was horribly mistaken—and he never was—this child was no magician. And if this was some sort of trick…no, it was too elaborate. Too senseless. Taking the puzzle would've been a instant victory for his enemies. There was no need to go further.

…So stealing it for power made even less sense than simple thievery.

Atemu was taken from his musings when a soldier got up the courage to, once again, ask him where he wanted the thief to be taken. The place for any criminal was the dungeons, of course, but the only place for the shennen puzzle was either in his private chambers or in his possession. The puzzle was still attached to the boy's hand for the time being, and it would've been fairly stupid to put it amongst the criminals residing in said palace dungeon…

Thus, having no other real option, Atemu very reluctantly ordered that the boy be placed in his own bedroom for interrogation.

And though no one, not even the pharaoh saw it, the shennen puzzle glinted in its approval.

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**1**: **Amenta** - The underworld in Egyptian mythology. Ammut, for those of you who don't know from reading too much Yuugi-ou, was an animalistic demoness of the underworld who sat by the scales of judgment (where, in Amenta, they weighed a human's heart to see if they deserved a good afterlife,) and ate the souls of the unworthy. Basically, this is the same as Atemu reveling in the idea of Thief King Bakura rotting in hell.

I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but the next bit is taking a while to work out all of the kinks, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, my word processor's sense of reason and 's capacity to cooperate with me on long chapters is shot to hell anyway, so I figured all you lovely reviewers deserve -some- proof that I didn't totally forget you.

I promise there's actual interaction between Yuugi and Atemu in the next chapter!

Thank you for your comments, compliments, and general interest. It reminds me how much I love to writer for others' entertainment and that's the main reason I'm still here.

**Review? **


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